


Knowing is different than feeling

by tillifer



Category: A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tillifer/pseuds/tillifer
Summary: What Ruby Rocks knows changes so quickly, and it's hard to keep up.
Relationships: Saccharina Frostwhip & Ruby Rocks
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Dimension 20 Fic Exchange 2020





	Knowing is different than feeling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tidelinear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tidelinear/gifts).



It is the night after Jet’s funeral and Ruby knows three things. 

She has to go to the great stone candy mountains, she is going to bring Jet back, and she will kill anyone who gets in her way. 

So she continues on, soldiers on, not for herself, no, Ruby Rocks is dead. She does it for Jet, Jet Rocks, who is now only a shadow of who she used to be. 

Saccharina Frostwhip calls Ruby Rocks her little sister and Ruby nearly screams. She was once a little sister, but was one no longer, and certainly not one to someone like Saccharina. Saccharina is disgustingly polite and unnervingly good at magic. It doesn’t occur to Ruby that she’s had more time to study it, the only thought Ruby has is that Lazuli is  _ her  _ aunt and  _ she’s _ the one who has Sour Scratch and appears to  _ her _ in visions.

She knows that she’s behaving like a child, she knows that she’s practically throwing a tantrum, and what makes all of it worse is how civil Saccharina is being about it. How calm she’s being, how little she reacts. All Ruby wants is a reason to hate her. An actual reason. Not the reason that is Ruby hating her because she represents everything Ruby could be if maybe she had just applied herself and been better at magic and then she could’ve-

Ruby Rocks has a half sister, which leaves a bad taste in her mouth, and she knows two things. 

She is going to bring Jet back and kill anyone who gets in her way. She has already made it to the stone candy mountains, now all she has to is go deeper. That’s what the Sugar Plum Fairy said. That’s where she’ll find her  _ real _ sister. 

How could Saccharina not be her real sister though? She sees so much of her father and of her aunt Lazuli and  _ Jet _ . Saccharina fights with the same might that Amethar does. She’s able to level an entire field of soldiers with a single spell. She goes to save Joren first, not waiting for anyone else. She just moves and does what needs to be done. And while Ruby doesn’t want to admit it, her use of magic is really incredible, so much more than what Ruby can do. And with how polite Saccharina is, Ruby is sure that if she asked, Saccharina would love to teach her. Which is exactly why she doesn’t.

They get to the ice cream temple and Ruby is sure Saccharina is showing off at this point. She’s moving mist when she doesn’t need to, dispelling magic, and sure, it protected them, but Ruby was sure she could take it. But then Ruby sees Jet. She sees her aunts and her sister and a way to be with them. And she sees a lie. She sees the way that Saccharina looks at the Sugarplum fairy, the unease in her body, and Ruby, despite everything she wants being right there, steps back. 

Saccharina asks Ruby to trust her, and Ruby isn’t sure what to do. Yes, technically, they are sisters, but they are not friends. She has no reason to trust her, and yet, she does. Saccharina does something to the Sugar Plum Fairy that hurts her, but Ruby can’t worry about that, all she’s thinking about is Jet’s sword in her hand and the fact that she will never get her sister back. 

And then Ruby finds herself walking up to Saccharina. She wants to run up to her. To apologize and hug her and cry and ask her to forgive her. She wants her sister back, and who would Ruby be to pass up an opportunity like this? But Saccharina declares herself Ruby’s queen, and her heart shatters. Her sister was supposed to be queen. And supposedly, her sister will be. But that’s all politics. 

If Ruby Rocks knows one thing, it’s that she was never really one for politics. 

So she lets Saccharina rule. She lets her be the queen that Candia needs. She lets her and Cinnamon fight the battles that Ruby can not fight. Ruby greets her in the hallways and shares her meal with her and does her best to mend the relationship she so very much ruined. When she saw Saccharina leave the Icecream Temple, saw her leaving alone and the glare that Gooey sent their way, well Ruby realizes the biggest mistake she’s made. She gave Saccharina a choice to make, and Ruby realizes the horrible spot she put Saccharina in.

Ruby Rocks knows two things. She did a terrible thing, and she will thaw Saccharina’s heart. 

So she takes the time to greet her in the morning, ask her how she slept, and Ruby can see the melancholy in her eyes. She sees the way that Saccharina wants to let her walls down, but knows what will happen if she does. Ruby sees it because she knows it. 

And so things only get better from there. Ruby manages to make her laugh for the first time, a genuine time, and Ruby thinks, yes, this is worth it. Saccharina has to compose herself, but Ruby notices that the smile doesn’t leave her face. 

Ruby goes up to her one day, and asks her if she would want to do something with her, nothing big, but a trip into Dulcington. Ruby tells her that she’s actually skipping her lessons for the day instead to spend time with Saccharina, and that’s when the shift is cemented. Saccharina asks if Ruby wants to learn magic from her. And Ruby nearly breaks her neck nodding. 

Ruby and Saccharina spend more time together than not. Ruby teaches Saccharina all the tricks she and Jet used to use, and tells her stories of the times she and Jet spent. In turn, Saccharina in turn tells Ruby of all the adventures she went on with her marauders, Gooey and Swifty and Jon Bon. Saccharina tells Ruby about all the responsibilities as queen, and she asks for Ruby’s opinion. Ruby realizes in that moment, that nobody else had asked what she thought. She always told them whether they wanted to hear it or not. Now someone wants to know what she thinks, wants to know  _ her _ . 

Ruby Rocks has a sister and knows three things. She is wanted, she is loved, and she can not take that for granted. 


End file.
